Hear me out. I realize this game isn’t World of Warcraft, nor should it become World of Warcraft. That said, comparisons between the two and observations of one’s successes over the other are inevitable, so I’m not going to try to avoid them. With that disclaimer out of the way…
Almost my entire guild, as well as most other players I’ve spoken to, agree that the game could benefit immensely from some equivalent of raids. Raid dungeons provide a whole separate level of PvE endgame progression that keeps players in-game until the next content release. Currently GW2 has no vast PvE endgame goal for players to work toward besides making a legendary (which let’s be honest, is tedious at best), high level fractals (which is just repeating the same mini-dungeons over and over), and clearing all of the explorable dungeon paths, each of which can be cleared in an hour or two on the first attempt with little to no preparation.
It also offers a level of build-up/payoff which is completely nonexistent in the game as of right now, and allows guilds to play together on a far more personal and co-operative level than the guild missions currently in place.
There are many who would jump on this suggestion wanting to drag the trinity and gear treadmill back into GW2 while we’re at it, but I believe both of those suggestions would massively undermine the design philosophy of the game. The trinity isn’t necessary because GW2 raid bosses would have a huge variety of other mechanics they could rely on, thanks to the fact that players can change their utility skills on a whim between bosses. There could be bosses that require players to use their crippling skills to kite dangerous enemies, or others that require tons of condition removal. There could be bosses that can only be defeated by using bundle items around their arena with clever timing, or others that have huge powerful attacks that simply –MUST- be dodged. Therefore boss mechanics that focus on the healers or tanks to increase the complexity of the fight aren’t needed and the trinity can stay out of this.
The gear treadmill is a much more delicate situation. There are many players who I’ve spoken to in-depth (including several of my relatives) who miss the sense of visible progression that was present in WoW from earning sexy new gear from the dungeons. They miss having those exclusive skill-driven rewards that they could show off to their friends to prove how “boss” they were. In my mind this doesn’t necessitate the gear treadmill in GW2 either, since I feel that same effect could be achieved with titles and armor skins from the raid dungeons. If the dungeons were hard enough and the rewards difficult enough to obtain, they’d carry the same social weight that the “hawt lewt” did. The sense that the player was getting better and more powerful as a result of their efforts would still be absent, but the design philosophy can only be stretched so far.
TL;DR: Most of the people I’ve talked to feel that the PvE endgame is still lacking in long-term things for players to do and the addition of raids could tidily close up that void.
I don’t expect a dev response, but a confirmation that this is a recognized issue would put a lot of minds at ease.